Hero dad shot deadBy STACY MOORE Wednesday, October 15 2008
Allan Seepersad stabbed a bandit who stormed into his home in Penal yesterday morning but the businessman died from gunshot wounds during the struggle with his attacker.
Seepersad got shot as he tried to protect his wife Deera, daughter Sally, 16, and ten-year-old niece Mohanie “Nandi” Chaitram.
A police report stated Seepersad had opened the front gate of his home at Railway Line Road, Gopee Trace, Penal when two men approached him from behind and grabbed him by his neck. It was at about 7.15 am and Seepersad, who was also the father of a ten-year-old boy, was about to take Sally and Nandi to school. He owned A&D Wrecking Service & Used Car Parts.
The gunmen announced a hold-up and forced Seepersad, 43, into the kitchen where Deera was preparing a breakfast of roti and bodi. When she saw the gunmen and her husband, Deera began screaming, “Bandit, bandit!” Sally and Nandi, hearing her shouts, locked themselves in a bedroom where they were dressing for school and hid under a bed.
“While hiding under the bed, Nandi wanted to scream and run out to her uncle Allan but Sally had to cover her mouth to prevent her from screaming,” Nandi’s mother Asha Chaitram, 36, told Newsday.
One of the gunmen held Deera by the neck and demanded cash. “Deera begged for her husband’s life and told the bandit to let her go and she would return with money,” said Chaitram.
The other gunman pushed Seepersad over the lit stove and he suffered burns to his lower abdomen. He and the gunman struggled as Deera broke free of her attacker and ran through the front door screaming for help.
“Before she even came back with neighbours gunshots were heard. Two shots was fired and one struck Allan in his abdomen and the other went through the galvanise ceiling. This happened during the struggle,” said Chaitram.
As he fought with the gunman, Seepersad managed to stab him in the neck. The wounded man and his accomplice then ran out of the house to a car that was parked nearby.
Chaitram said she was at work in San Fernando when she got a phone call that Seepersad, her cousin, was shot and immediately rushed to his home.
“When I reached Nandi ran out to me and hold on to my feet saying, ‘Uncle dead mummy. They can’t carry my uncle nowhere mummy. He was nice to me mummy, the best uncle I ever had mummy’,” said Chaitram.
As undertakers removed Seepersad’s body from the house, Nandi, still dressed in her school shirt, became hysterical.
“They can’t carry my uncle. He was too nice mummy,” Nandi cried, as she held a photograph of Seepersad. She rubbed the photograph against her face and called out, “Uncle, uncle.”
Nandi, a standard two student of Suchit Trace Hindu School, was inconsolable.
Chaitram said Nandi’s 14-year-old sister died in a car accident last year and the little girl has had a difficult time accepting her death. Nandi survived the crash and has a scar on her face. Chaitram said Seepersad’s daughter Sally has been like a sister to Nandi since the accident.
“Now I don’t know how she will be able to cope. Her uncle was one of the best things that ever happened to her. I can’t believe it,” Chaitram cried as she massaged Nandi’s head with rubbing alcohol.
The police issued bulletins to hospitals and health centres advising officials to be on the look out for a man seeking medical attention for a stab wound to the neck.
